<p>hey. I am a junior wanting to major a foreign language (french or german) in college. i have had three years of french and four years of german. i want to go to a place, where it has a very good foreign language program, but i don't want to go to a place where a lot of people study or are interested in foreign languages (which means don't reccommend me to Middlebury). i kind of need a school where financial aid is generous. i don't need prestige, just a good school to go to. </p>
<p>asian, nys resident, low income family</p>
<p>gpa: 95/100 (weighted)
sat: 2060
sat ii: 750 german
act: 28</p>
<p>rigorous courseload, not very or most rigorous
a few ecs</p>
<p>If you don’t want to go to a place where a lot of people study or are interested in foreign languages, then I’m not sure how such schools would have reputations in foreign language study that would enable us to recommend them.</p>
<p>Well, the thing about learning a language is that it’s really cool to have a) a lot of people learning the same language to practice with and b) a lot of people who know what it’s like to learn a second (or third) language. That aside, it’s difficult to have a stand-out language school without a lot of language students. Stand-out programs attract a lot of students.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is usually touted as having a fantastic foreign language department and they are very good with aid, but your SAT score might make it a little bit of a reach.</p>
<p>That aside, I wouldn’t really worry about the relative ranking of a school’s foreign language department. Your two languages are two of the most common, and most likely biggest, language departments at any university. I think for the most part, the quality of big-department subjects (things like English, history, foreign language) tracks pretty well with the overall quality of the school. All very good schools will I’m sure have very good foreign language departments. With that said, I would focus more on finding schools where you like the atmosphere, can get aid, etc. </p>
<p>The exception is a school like Middlebury where language is a well-noted strength, but since you don’t want to be around other language majors, you might want to avoid those schools.</p>